Kids Culinaire

“After an overwhelming response last year, the festival of Healthy and Happy food – Kids Culinaire, is back with lots more to offer.

An initiative of Pilcrow Communication, Kids Culinaire is India’s first and only fun food festival for children. The idea was born out of a need felt by the founders of Pilcrow, Ratika van Noord Bhatnagar and Rohini Mathur, to revive the days when malls, mobile games, internet devices didn’t exist and families enjoyed quality time together, picnics and the outdoors.

Kids Culinaire has therefore been planned keeping parents, caregivers and little ones in mind and is full of fun workshops, interesting information, exciting activities and cool contests. The idea is not to say “don’t eat fast food” or “don’t eat cookies”, the focus is on balance and to get the children interact with food in a fun way so they are able to make healthier choices. Through this festival, the hope is to raise awareness about some relevant concerns around food today such as lifestyle diseases, food allergies, proper hygiene, recycling, etc..

The 1st edition of Kids Culinaire in February 2015 saw families come together as a wonderful bonding experience. The several happy photographs of parents taking their children through the food tours and showing them the various wonderful elements that make up the food groups. Watching chef Ranveer Brar milk the cow at the dairy section was a special treat. Leafing through pictures of parents and grandparents cheering on children during contests, or listening to a story together under a tree, or just sitting and eating together as a family, made us very proud to have brought this event to life, adds the founders of Kids Culinaire.

This year, the organisers have introduced some interesting new activities while retaining the most popular zones from last year. At the Demo and Contest area, they welcome back Chef Saransh Goila, India’s youngest celebrity chef, Food Blogger Smita Srivastava, author of Fun Foods for Fussy Eaters, and introduce Amrita Raichand, model and chef of popular TV show “Mummy ka Magic”. The story telling gets more interactive with Kathashaala, a storytelling institute which specializes in the use of performing arts. Food tours and the Fun Zone get bigger and better, and an engaging and relevant activity called “from Garbage to Garden” has been introduced with fun workshops on creating composte from kitchen waste and growing your own vegetable garden, conducted by Edible Routes. Entry to the event is ticketed to ensure a safer environment for families with children, but participation in these fun activities is free once inside.

The 2nd edition of Kids Culinaire is planned on 20th and 21st February at PSOI gardens, Nehru Park, Chanakyapuri.

Anubhav Sapra is an avid foodie! He is a Founder but proudly calls himself a Foodie-in-chief at Delhi Food Walks. He is also a street-food and Indian regional cuisine connoisseur and loves to write about street-food.

Daawat-e-Maghrib @ Singh Sahib

By Anubhav Sapra

Food knows no boundaries. It connects people across globe. I was at the Eros, the other day to be a part of the Pakistani Food Festival named Dawat-e-maghrib, where I had a privilege to share the table with one of the celebrity chefs of Pakistan, Gulzar Hussain. We had such an intense discussion around food that I took him across Old Delhi, the very next day, to sample some of the local dishes of Bazar Matia Mahal in Jama Masjid.

To be clear, Singh Sahib Restaurant at Eros Hotel is hosting a ten-day Pakistani Food Festival, Dawat-e-maghrib till 25th September. The chefs – Chef Gulzar and Chef Naseem from Pakistan has come to Delhi to showcase the delicacies straight from the land of Pakistan – Rawalpindi, Lahore, Multan and Karanchi. This seems to me a not-to-miss-out thing.

Chef Gulzar Hussain is a well known name in Pakistan. Chef Gulzar took his professional training from Japan and worked there for about 12 years and married a Japanese lady. He has also spent years with his family in Thailand and gained expertise in Thai food too. He finally settled in Karachi, Pakistan and opened a Thai restaurant. He also started his TV career with his morning show on a famous TV channel, HUM TV and till date he has worked in almost all the famous cooking channels in Pakistan. His recipes are famous all over Pakistan and he is loved by millions of food lovers (Source: Zaiqa).

I must admit that it was one of the most memorable meals of my life. The food was truly delectable. I started with the famed chapli kebab of Pakistan- the flat kebabs made with whole spices. In India, the focus is more on making the kebabs tender such that they simply melt in mouth. Whereas, the chapli kebabs, I sampled in the festival were coarse in texture and the use of whole spices seem to have added a different taste to it. The raw spices especially the coriander seeds blended well with the meat. Another starter, chargah- whole spring chicken, double cooked, steamed and later fried with spices was delicious too. Lahori fish fry was worth trying- the surmai fish is first marinated with lahori spices and later deep fried. Other dishes in the starters were murgh boti and malai mushrooms.

In the main course, I had mutton nahari which appeared to be quite distinct from the Delhi one. This dish was a little spicier and the mutton pieces were bigger in size. The gravy was excellent and had a stew-like consistency. Chef Gulzar revealed that nahari and siri paya is a popular breakfast dish in Pakistan. The same dishes are still popular in Old Delhi- nahari, magaz/bheja and nalli. That brings our Old Delhi food culture a bit closer to Pakistan. Macchli salan was yet another dish cooked with ajwain and methi.

A vegetarian dish, aloo ki katliyan became one of my favourites. It was a dry preparation of potato with tomato, cumin and turmeric. The recipe seemed to be really simple but the dish was flavourful. The biryani was again full of flavours- memoni biryani – an extremely spicy biryani developed by memons of Gujarat-Sindh region. It is cooked in akhni style. In desserts, pethay ka halwa, sheer khorma, and lab-e-shireen – rich Pakistani custard with fresh cut fruits and dry nuts were served.

Anubhav Sapra is an avid foodie! He is a Founder but proudly calls himself a Foodie-in-chief at Delhi Food Walks. He is also a street-food and Indian regional cuisine connoisseur and loves to write about street-food.

A joke that has been doing the rounds recently is that, the 3rd National Street Food Festival organised by The National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) in Delhi was a bigger hit than Dhoom 3! Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was declared HOUSEFUL.

The three day event which began on 20th December and lasted till the 22nd of December, witnessed a footfall of almost 18,000 people. The catchphrase of the gastronomic affair was ‘Swad hai, Romanch hai, Street Foods ki Baat hi kuch aur hai’.

Street food vendors from all across India had come to participate and flaunt their regional speciality. The event was organised by NASVI in order to promote, professionalise and brand street foods. It was also aimed at influencing the policy makers in order to transform the usually ignored genre into a secure zone.

The entry fee was merely Rs.30 and totally, worth it all. Stalls from Chandigarh, U.P., Bihar, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Assam and host state Delhi were seen. The fest had something for everybody. The ones having a sweet tooth indulged themselves in desserts like jalebi- rabri and kulfi, while the hard core vegetarians found sarsoon ka saag with makke ki roti to their delight. There were ample options even for the non-vegetarians; there were seekh kababs, chicken tikka, mutton and chicken korma, biryani, fish tikka and so much more. The list can go on.

The first stall that caught my eye was of Bihar. Their speciality ‘littli chokha’ was a popular demand. Litti, a small naan- like thing is made with flour and a ‘sattu’ stuffing and is served with potato curry or a non-veg curry.

Chicken tikka rolls from the Mughlai Cuisine stall were next on my plate. Amazingly soft and perfectly barbecued tikkas tasted heavenly with the green chutney and lemon. The roll was worth Rs. 80/-

The Tamil Nadu stall had Tamarind Rice, Pyaaz pakodas and puddu to offer. I tried the puddus which were cute rice balls. Made of rice, peas, chopped onions and green coriander, they were served with green chutney and sadly, were not so tasty as they looked.

The famous Mysore Pak from Mysore was also a hit with the people.

I then jumped to the Punjab Stall which offered amazing chicken and sarsoon ka saag. It was served traditionally with makke ki roti.

The aloo bada at the Chandigarh Stall was also popular among the visitors. It was a different kind of bread roll, one can say, without the bread of course. The stuffing was similar, that of mashed potatoes and tasted similar too.

The jalebi rabri was the best one I have ever had. The jalebis were crispy, aptly sweetened and tasted very delicious with the creamy rabri.

The Lucknow stall also had interesting dishes on its menu. It had Mughlai Biryani and Boti Kabab for all. The Biryani was amazing. The rice was soft, pleasant and nicely coloured.
Street food is a carrier of culture and heritage and festivals like these help us revive this truth.

My experience at the fest was wonderful. There was so much to explore, so many foodies to meet, so much love to share!

Anubhav Sapra is an avid foodie! He is a Founder but proudly calls himself a Foodie-in-chief at Delhi Food Walks. He is also a street-food and Indian regional cuisine connoisseur and loves to write about street-food.